My parents tell that when they were small,all summer long they were left to their own devices to roam the streets and the play grounds of The City at a very young age. When I was 5, I started walking to school on my own in a not so great section of Trenton. I am 10 years older than my oldest brother, and by the time it was time for him to get to school, he was shuttled back and forth by car at a much shorter distance in a suburban area. What changed between then and now? I certainly would never allow a five year old of mine to walk to school by themselves when we lived in Albany. But while I am keeping them safe, my kids seem to be real pinheads when it comes to having any street smarts.
So what came first, did people decide sheltering kids more was a more responsible trend in parenting, or did things just get worse? Maybe a little of both, but more so of the second option. When my parents were children, there was not the horrible dangers we see of the drug culture. My mother also talks about growing up in Harlem when all the neighbors would watch out for each others kids. The flip side is my parents tell me when their parents went to work for summer vacation they would simply drop the kids off at the playground all day. I cannot imagine anyone doing something like that today.
While I think we could all agree leaving kids on the playground to fend for themselves , or even letting 5 year olds walk to school on their own is not idyllic, my brothers and my children seem to lack a great deal of simple street smarts. I am really worried about them. When we go to the Mall, for example, my oldest does not have a sense in what is going on around her. Frankly, I do not know how to teach lessons of basic survival skills in public. It seems to me it is something you learn from experience. However, I am not sure I want to throw my children into situations that teach certain experiences.
I know, I worry a lot about how my children will turn out. But I keep feeling we live in such deceptive times where it is hard to gauge right from wrong, and so much of my job as a Mom is contemplating what the real right thing to do is.
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HOT topic! Hubby and I were just talking about this. We roamed alone for HOURS when we were chitlens, and our parents didn’t even know where we WERE! What the? Now, my homelife was dramatically different from his. I was a latch-key kid. My single mom NEVER knew where I was. Hubby’s home was the polar opposite. His Mom was home, but let him roam for hours on end, seemingly not minding where he was. He denies that such parents (the let ’em roam type) were somehow *bad* parents. Things perhaps weren’t as “scary.” I disagree. “Scary” has been around since Cain and Able. I think our parents were living in a fool’s paradise.
Smockmomma,
I don’t know. I remember watching a special on John Walsh and when his son Adam dissapeared. At the time of the events, I was ten years old and visiting my grandparents in Ft. Lauderdale. I remember then thinking nothing of the fact that his mother let him roam to the toy section of the store by himself. I used to do that too. Now I would never, ever let my child do that. I am sure that single incident in and of itself probably changed a lot, but somethings that were commone years ago, no longer are.
I have a feeling I may be more of your parents’ generation than yours. I started kindergarten in 1956, in a suburb of Boston. I walked to school and back (twice; in those days you went home for lunch) almost every day, although of course I was happy whenever my mother chose to give me a ride, especially in the winter. I had the warnings against strangers hammered into my little head, so much so that when one of my parents’ closest friends, a man whose daughters babysat me, offered me a ride one day, I turned him down. I was more afraid of bullies, but there weren’t very many living in the direction of our house. After school, we would go off into the woods behind our house (the Middlesex Fells Reservation) and play for hours. After supper, we would go out again, although we didn’t want to go into the woods after dark, but we would wander about the neighborhood. The fire department tested its signal at 7:30 every evening, so we always knew when to come in. I never thought of myself as having “street smarts”–that’s just how it was.
I never thought of myself as having “street smarts”–that’s just how it was. How about “common sense in dealing with the people around you on the street, in shopping areas etc”?LOL
I have a feeling I may be more of your parents’ generation than yours. I started kindergarten in 1956,
You are exactly one year younger than my parents.